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<title>You're Hardly Nocturnal So Don't Even Try by JD_meister</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22823176">You're Hardly Nocturnal So Don't Even Try</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JD_meister/pseuds/JD_meister'>JD_meister</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gen, Self-Indulgent, despite who the characters involved are, snake as a body warmer, when you want to read but your familiar says no</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:34:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22823176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JD_meister/pseuds/JD_meister</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagini: quite possibly the only being in the universe who can sass the dark lord and get away with it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nagini &amp; Voldemort (Harry Potter)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You're Hardly Nocturnal So Don't Even Try</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a dark and frozen winters night, and the world was a quiet place.</p><p>In the guest wing of Malfoy Manor, beyond the antechamber at the end of the hall, in the bedroom he had claimed for his own, the Dark Lord Voldemort read to himself. <i>The Nightshade Guide to Necromancy</i> sat one third of the way open on the bed. He lay on his side, propped up on one arm.</p><p>Across the room, the door shifted minutely in its frame, as if a weight was being pressed against it. Slowly, the handle turned and the door swung inwards. There was a heavy thud as Nagini dropped bodily to the floor.</p><p>“How graceful.” Voldemort murmured to himself. He had been wondering how long she would take to show. Waiting for her to enter the room fully, he returned to his book. Once she had, he made an errant flick of the wrist with his wand and the door shut softly by itself.</p><p>Nagini glided almost silently over the floor. Voldemort looked over his shoulder just in time to watch her head pop up from the foot of the bed.</p><p>“You should be asleep.” She hissed, beginning their nightly ritual of arguing and chastisement regarding his sleeping habits, or lack thereof.</p><p>“And yet here I am.” He said, looking back to his book.</p><p>“Indeed.”</p><p>She dipped back down beneath his sight and started worming up and under sheets that were heavier than she would have liked. Winter bedding had too many layers and it was such a bother finding an entry point under them. She hissed something else, but it came out heavily muffled.</p><p>“I cannot hear you.”</p><p>Voldemort watched as the snake continued to burrow along the bed, moving further until her snout popped out next to his book. She began pulling up the rest of her into the warm bed. There was more than enough space for the both of them to sleep comfortably, yet the moment the last of her tail was away from the floor, she began the busy process of coiling and curling around him, absorbing as much body heat as possible.</p><p>The Dark Lord did nothing to encourage or prevent her doing so. He only continued to read, oblivious of the hour.  </p><p>Nagini squeezed her head under his free arm and into the space before the book. “Do I have to treat you as a hatchling every night?”</p><p>“It is only because you insist upon doing so.” He eased onto his back. He had been laying too long on his side, and a twinge was irritating his neck. He balanced the book on his chest. Nagini hissed petulantly as he moved and ruined all her coils. She began wrapping around him anew, tighter this time.</p><p>Voldemort finally sighed, freely letting exasperation into his voice. “Must you?”</p><p>“Yes.” Nagini replied, pointedly. </p><p>She had completely entangled herself around his legs and bunched up numerous heavy coils to press down on his stomach. She rested her head on the top of his book, flickering her tongue idly. </p><p>“You will be sleeping on the floor tomorrow.” He said, without taking his eyes from the page.</p><p>“You say that each night, but it never happens.”</p><p>He stared at her a long moment, before finally acknowledging that fact. “Hmm.”</p><p>“Is that all there is to say? You won't even argue with me?” Her head rolled until it was upside down, sliding down onto the pages. “You are tired indeed.”</p><p>“Yes. Tired of a serpent who thinks too highly of herself and is intent on mothering me for some unfathomable reason.”</p><p>“...You don't have to be rude about it.” She retracted and slunk back down out of sight.</p><p>Thus they lay there in silence for a time. It was only when words no longer began to mean anything and Voldemort caught himself re-reading the same passage multiple times and still not comprehending that he gave in and called it night. </p><p>He set the book aside and Nagini immediately perked up, her sulking aura vanishing in an instant. Her coils shifted and agitated. He crossed his arms at her. She looked at him expectantly.</p><p>Defeated, he sighed again. “Go ahead.”</p><p>Immediately she began moving. Some of the weight moved from his stomach and instead settled on his chest and around his arms. He allowed her to do so. The one time he forbade her from coiling up to him in the night, she had deposited him on the floor in his sleep and he had not noticed until the morning. Decidedly uncivil words had been exchanged that day.<br/>
By the time she had finished and quite happy with her handiwork, he was firmly entrenched within her coils. Nagini finally settled, resting her head atop heaped coils on his chest. Voldemort was not uncomfortable; merely amused at the situation.</p><p>He snuffed the light with a snap of his fingers, and mulled over how he, the Dark Lord Voldemort, greatest sorcerer in all the world, master of arcane arts, had to adhere to the bedtime of an abnormally large snake who enjoyed using him as a hot water bottle. Such was the lot of a Parselmouth, he supposed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I lost all motivation for Fire Emblem and instead fixated on Harry Potter. And I continue to be into villains unabashedly.</p><p>I think about Nagini a fair bit and this is one of the results. Let's all be honest, if you had a ten foot long snake who was very friendly and loyal to you, you'd let it sleep in your bed too.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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